Clicking with voters

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One of the more interesting ways the young are connecting is
through the blogosphere. There are millions of blogs in cyberspace
and during this election bloggers have become a much-needed
anecdote to the group-think of many mainstream media
commentators.

An increasing number of net-literate people from across the
political divide are turning away from the newspapers and onto
their screens.

Moving away from traditional notions of the journalistic "he
said/she said" rhetoric, blogging will not replace news reporting.
It will merely increase the number of voices commenting in the
arena. Blogs are a way for people to engage in a process that is
often the reserve of political and media experts. Issues of truth
and accountability are given a working over in many politically
active blogs. A growing number of journalists and editors are being
held to account by eagle-eyed bloggers noticing mistakes,
plagiarism or untruths. And the myth of blogging being the domain
of the net geek is long gone.

Andrew Sullivan, a blogger in the US, puts it best by explaining
the convergence of "old" media (newspapers and TV) and "new" media
(blogs and online forums): "The competition between new and old
media can help get stories right; media bias is more openly
admitted so that the reader or viewer can make up his or her own
mind; new information emerges that might never have been known
before. It's not perfect and it can lead to some ugly moments. But
it's real and dynamic and open. It's democratic. And if you're
interested in politics, it keeps you looking forward to opening
your laptop each morning."

People are being turned onto blogs by the sheer diversity of
views. During last month's Republican convention in New York,
Sullivan clocked about 100,000 readers in 24 hours. Executives from
major companies at the World Economic Forum in Davos were even
blogging in January this year. This is because - according to Yat
Sui, a manager at a large US-based email company - "unlike
traditional journalists, we present our own subjective views and
invite people to comment".

When Boris Johnson, the editor of The Spectator magazine,
launched a blog last month he said that former modes of
communication were dead and "a new kind of politics" had
arrived.

The Australian's Christine Jackman wrote in early
September about Australian political websites and said the reason
the major parties' websites were so humdrum was "because our system
of compulsory voting has allowed the big parties to become
complacent. There is no need to explore new ways to motivate the
disaffected - often young and cynical, and more likely to be
tech-savvy - to get out and vote."

A Liberal Party spokesman claims that its website is being
"continually enhanced and upgraded". The Greens is the only major
Australian party to use a blogging facility on its site. Its
webpage has attracted more than 1000 volunteers and according to
web-traffic company Hitwise is the second most visited election
site after the ALP.

A design company, The Hiser Group, surveyed swinging voters
earlier this year to gauge their views on the websites of the major
parties. Labor's site may have "won" (on a 1-5 scale, it scored
3.2), with Greens not far behind, but the results were
underwhelming.

The parties could take a few lessons from their American
counterparts. One only has to observe the recent Republican and
Democratic conventions to understand the ways in which the internet
is being used to harness debate. Both parties invited popular (and
generally sympathetic) bloggers to comment on proceedings alongside
journalists from traditional media.

Even the Democratic contender, John Kerry, has his own blog, a
tacit indication that to gather widespread support across voter
groups, all manner of technology should be used - not as a mere
add-on, but a necessity.

With online fund-raising becoming a serious money earner in the
US, harnessing the web's potential is something too few political
parties here appear to grasp. The days of simply placing political
brochures online will hopefully soon be a thing of the past.